Monthly Archives: March 2017

The Toyota Research Institute is making headlines as it makes advances in autonomous vehicle technologies. The 2.0 advanced safety research vehicle was recently displayed in Sonoma California and have been dubbed the Chauffeur and Guardian technologies.

According to Toyota, the new Toyota self-driving cars operate by using a range of machines and systems. These include the LIDAR feature, a combination of radar and cameras that work to optimize the computer’s perception of environment. The autonomous Prius models also rely on high-definition maps to a degree, that, when combined with LIDAR, paint a clear picture for the computer.

“Basically, it is a smart vehicle designed to get smarter over time,” said Gill Pratt, CEO of the Toyota Research Institute. “It will learn individual driver habits and abilities and will benefit from shared intelligence from other cars as data gathering, sharing and connectivity technologies advance. We believe Guardian can probably be deployed sooner and more widely than Chauffeur, providing high-level driver-assist features capable of helping mitigate collisions and save lives, sooner rather than later.”

The Chauffeur system is a fully autonomous technology that can operate constantly, while Guardian is a high-level driver assist system. This means the car is able to always monitor what’s happening, helping to prevent crashes moments before humans are even aware of danger. You don’t have to give up your freedom behind the wheel with these self-driving systems—they just work when you need them. At Bill Walsh Toyota, we can’t wait to see what else the brand has in store for the future.